This invention relates to a new drug and a new technique for obtaining new curative effects from the drug.
Almost every internal disease of man is due to internal inflammations or injuries. They result from physical, chemical or biological agents. The latter ones are by far the most important, such pathogenic biological agents including bacteria, protozoa, fungi and viruses, which give rise to infections. An infectious disease is therefore a morbid condition caused by pathogenic agents. It may be localized in a single part of the body or spread through every tissue by the blood flow.
Inflammation is a local reaction to the infection. It consists of a morphological alteration of inflammed tissues, so-called vessel congestion, which takes place in two stages, with ischemia, i.e. a local anemia produced by local obstacles to the arterial flow, followed by dilation and resulting hyperemia. The affected organism mobilizes phagocytes; they are transmitted through the blood to the site of inflammation and, together with local histiocytes (fixed macrophages), they struggle against pathogenic germs, trying to enclose, ingest and destroy them. Blood that is in such a phase has a throbbing character, gradually releasing its tension, achieving a kind of stasis with resulting congestion. In this second phase its components (erythrocytes and leukocytes which are usually mixed together) form two separated groups; erythrocytes being in the middle and leukocytes along the vessel walls.
From the dilated pores of the blood vessels the leukocytes and pathogenic germs seep into the tissues.
Vasodilatation, permeabilization and exudation follow an inflammation. The process of reparation and reconstruction, which takes place at the end of an inflammatory process, occurs according to a fixed pattern, i.e. the formation of granulation tissue.
An internal injury is, on the other hand, an anatomical damage of any internal tissue or organ of the body resulting from physical agents (fractures), chemical agents or pathogenic infection.
Diathesis is different from both inflammation and internal injury. It is a constitutional predisposition or tendency to a particular disease or affliction. Some men, through congenital or hereditary causes, have some organs or tissues, which are like a ground where certain diseases take root with greater facility. Diathesis, therefore, is not an actual morbid condition in itself, but a bodily constitution which is predisposed to a disease, or class of diseases. Lithic diathesis, for instance, describes the condition of men prone to the formation of calculi in the gall bladder, kidneys, vesica, prostate, and so on.
Since organic defenses are not always able to wipe out a morbifical attack, medical science has conducted a vast amount of research to find means to aid the body's defenses.
The aim of chemotherapy is the research and production of molecules which are as dangerous as possible to infectious agents and as harmless as possible to humans.
After the introduction of sera and vaccines, an important chemotherapeutic discovery was the preparation of sulfa drugs, whose effect is to reduce the activity of the metabolites of pathogenic germs, in order to weaken and make them easier prey of the natural defenses of organism. The discovery of antibiotics followed.
Antibiotic treatment takes advantage of manifestations of antagonism among different germs and different species, giving back the viable balance to the attacked organism. The action of antibiotics varies from antibiotic to antibiotic. Some interfere with the growth of micro-organisms and with cell division, some with microbial respiration, some with the utilization of essential metabolites.
Another kind of organic defenses against microbial infections or lesions is the use of drugs having therapeutic properties. These drugs are split up into two groups: elective and non-elective drugs, the former ones acting on certain organs or tissues, the latter ones on every organ or tissue.
In spite of the remarkable progress achieved in the treatment of internal injuries and inflammations by the introduction of new remedies, we are far, however, from achieving the final goal. Particularly, sulfa drugs and antibiotics, which proved invaluable in the treatment of acute infectious diseases are not very effective in the struggle against chronic diseases, for humans tend to assuetude in cases of a long-term treatment. Moreover, a specific remedy is lacking in many cases, such as in lithiasis and several organic disorders. Finally, there are some cases, in which, even though there are remedies for the treatment of certain diseases, their toxicity prevents their use at an adequate concentration. It follows that many diseases are still incurable. Also diathesis, being ignored rather than treated, too often fatally develops from a predisposition stage to a specific disease; and chronic infirmity as a permanent weakness threatens not only the health but the life itself of its victims.
The only refuge in many cases is to resort to a surgical operation. But, apart from not always being possible, it must be pointed out that, even when the operation is practicable, surgery often becomes a demolishing process, with a severe impairment of the functional capabilities of the patient.
The gaps touched on above, although they cover nearly every therapeutical field, are still more obvious for nervous and mental diseases. Here the treatment is highly ineffectual and often the only solution is a segregation of the patient from the human community.
To sum up, in spite of great progress, several deficiencies remain in the treatment of internal injuries and inflammations, of diathesis and of nervous and mental diseases.
The present invention compensates for some of the inadequacies of present-day therapy by the use of a chemical substance in conjunction with a special technique. The new discovery presupposes that in any microbic attack and in any dysfunction of the organs and tissues, the natural defenses constitute the base for defeating the illness and that medicines and remedies are merely subsidiary means of assisting such a defense. The corollary arrived at from this premise is that the principal task of therapy is not only to reinforce this reaction, but also to recreate it, by artificial means, when the body isn't able to do so independently.
On the basis of existing knowledge we can now provoke such a natural reaction in the superficial blood vessels. In fact it is known that heat administered by means of compresses, hydrotherapy, mud-baths, vapor or electricity on a part of the body produces a dilation of the superficial vessels and a consequent inflow of blood.
It is also known that certain substances other than heat have analogous characteristics. Various explanations have been formulated about the body's mechanism to produce this effect in response to the application of heat and revulsives. According to the oldest conception, their function was to eliminate the stanched blood and bad humors from the internal organs and to bring them to the surface.
According to the hypothesis of J. Mackenzie, every cutaneous area corresponds to a visceral area which is linked to sympathetic nerve connections. A stimulus, passing to and from a visceral segment by way of the spinal cord, can provoke corresponding vasomotorial reactions of a greater or lesser intensity which can contribute to the cure of a pathological condition.
Other theories attribute the function of these agents to the liberation of histamine to provoke the enlargement of the lumen of the vessels.
However, apart from these different explanations of the phenomenon, it is clear that while medicine has, until now, been able to provoke these reactions of the superficial vessels, it hasn't been able to produce a similar reaction for the deeper vessels of the human body.